Visiting disaster stricken Cagayan de Oro

Last Tuesday morning, I took an AirPhil Q400 turbo-prop plane bound for Cagayan de Oro (CDO) as the trip was already planned a few weeks before. I originally thought I should cancel my trip, but my journalistic instinct told me that I needed to go and see things for myself. However while still waiting for my flight, AirPhil announced that my flight was delayed indefinitely as the airport in CDO was closed. We learned from our friends in CDO that President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III was expected to arrive there.

True enough this was confirmed and you could hear the sighs of passengers asking, “Why should the airport be closed just because the President is there?” Fortunately, the delay was a short 30 minutes and we took off for the 40-minute flight from Cebu to CDO. As the plane was preparing to land, I readied my camera and took photos of the debris or flotsam that came from the CDO River some two kilometers from the Port of CDO.

As the plane flew lower, I noticed that there were many logs in the flotsam. Proof that despite the Presidential order by P-Noy for a total log ban, people upstream were still cutting logs. Perhaps P-Noy should slow down on ugly politicking and that vengeance impeachment and check out his own people who do not follow his Executive Orders.

From the airport, we drove straight to downtown CDO which is beside the river and you can already see much of the devastation. I got out on the 3rd Bridge and it was evident that the water rose more than 20 ft. because logs and debris was still stuck on the side of the bridge. I could see the Gov. Isalina Bridge from the 3rd bridge and you can also see the debris stuck on that bridge that showed how high the flood waters rose.

Across on the other side of the river lies a construction project of the Paseo del Rio, owned by a dear friend, Ochie Pelaez of Liceum de Cagayan. This is a shopping mall, Hotel and Convention Center with a 17-story building on top, which is still under construction by Dakay Construction of Cebu.

I met up with Engr. Pericles “Ricky” Dakay and his cousin, Julius Dakay, his senior project manager who was staying in their field offices beside the construction site when the floodwaters rose. The security guards woke them up to warn them of the imminent danger and in just a few minutes, the waters reached the second flood of the unfinished building.

Julius told me that it was very frustrating to hear the cries for help by those who were caught in the flood, but they could only watch and do nothing because the floodwaters were still rising. At that moment, you only think of your own survival. When morning came, all their field offices and containers loaded with construction materials disappeared and their heavy equipment totally inundated. They also learned that people had clung to the trees beside the rotunda 50 ft. from the construction site and bodies were strewn everywhere.

I went to CDO to meet up with Mr. Elpie Paras, president of the Philippine Cable TV Association and owner of PARASAT, CDO’s cable company. Elpie showed me around in CDO and we even dropped by his mother, Mrs. Victorina “Nanang” Paras who is an avid fan of my column. For a 91-year old mother of ten children and 31 great grandchildren, she is healthy, energetic and still has a great memory of the time when we went to Germany with the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. and the Cagayan Chamber, to which she belonged. Her secret is to work in the garden.

Elpie then drove me to the Pelaez Bridge (named after the late Vice-President Emmanuel Pelaez) around 10 kilometers upstream of the CDO River and showed me what was left of the city’s Rio Verde Water System. This is why CDO badly needs a water filtration system because their water system totally conked out. Driving around the back roads of CDO you will see groups of people getting water where spring water can be found.

I didn’t get to the Presscon that P-Noy held because of my flight delay. We know too well that the President got a lot of flak again because of his being unable to visit the typhoon victims right away. This was made worse by that blog that revealed that he joined the PSG Christmas party last Sunday and things soured further when Kris Aquino and her sister Pinky got themselves interviewed on ANC to defend their brother. What hogwash! What’s wrong with admitting a mistake, huh?

During the presscon, P-Noy did make the right decision that the typhoon victims should not be allowed to return to their original homes and asked the soldiers to enforce this. Of course, the populist CDO Mayor Vicente Emano wasn’t pleased with this. But hey, P-Noy’s decision to relocate them to higher ground means that this tragedy would no longer be repeated! At this point, hearing the TV and radio reports of the outpouring of donations and support by Filipinos for CDO, let me say that I’m proud of being a Filipino. I know in my heart that CDO can hurdle this crisis.

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